Michael Langlois

Christian Palestinian Aramaic (CPA) is often associated to Syriac, from which it inherits its writing; as a result, most printed editions use a Syriac font. But in reality, CPA uses a specific writing, whereas its linguistic characteristics (phonology, morphology, syntax) associate it with other western Aramaic dialects.

For these reasons, a CPA-specific Unicode font was long due. I am pleased to offer a preliminary version of my “CPA Genizah ML” font.
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The course of Old Testament Textual Criticism that I teach at the School of Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Catholic University of Paris starts tomorrow!

This discipline consists in the comparison and evaluation of biblical manuscripts in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Syriac, and so on. In what way do they differ? Can we retrieve the original biblical text? Answer: tomorrow at 4 PM!

The course of Old Testament Textual Criticism that I teach at the School of Ancient Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the Catholic University of Paris starts today! This discipline consists in the comparison and evaluation of biblical manuscripts in Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Syriac, and so on. In what way do they differ? Can we retrieve the original biblical text? Answer: today at 1 PM!

The latest edition of the Introduction to the Old Testament features a new section on the Eastern Churches’ Old Testament, with a general introduction followed by individual presentations of the main books included in the oriental canons.

I was asked to write this section, in which I proposed to include the following books: 3–4 Maccabees, 3–4 Esdras, Jubilees, Enoch, and the Testament of the Twelve Patriarchs.

Here is a list of my contributions in PDF format:

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At the editor’s request, I wrote in Le Muséon a critical review of Jean-Claude Haelewyck’s Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages (Safran, 2006).

The unusual length of this recension (16 pages!) is due to the numerous problems encountered at the reading of this volume. J.-C. Haelewyck is aware of these problems and answered me with these nice words: “I wish all authors to receive such critique. You go into details while always remaining nice and constructive.”

Here is the article in PDF format:
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